Q1 2019 Key Market Indicators – Queensland

Queensland gets the
people’s choice award

Queensland (QLD) continues to attract new residents into the
sunshine state, with 14,358 people choosing to call it home in the June quarter
of 2018. This is a 7.5% increase over the past 12 months, which earned QLD a
silver award nationally for the highest
nett migration category in the PRDnationwide Q1 2019 Key Market Indicator
Awards.

An increase in population would naturally suggest an
increase in housing demand, so naturally, QLD earned a bronze award nationally
for the highest number of dwelling
approvals in December 2018, at 2,601 approvals. This is however a sharp
-29.6% decline over the past 12 months, which suggests there is room for previous,
current, and incoming stock to be absorbed. This provides comfort to developers
with current projects in the pipeline, and also to those scoping out future
projects.

The QLD home affordability index read 35.5 points in the September
quarter of 2018, which is a minor softening of -0.3% compared to 12 months
prior. That said, this is higher than the home affordability index reading for
New South Wales (27.3 points), Victoria (29.5 points), and the Australian
average (31.9 points), suggesting that QLD remains the most affordable state
between the three largest states in the country. The number of first home buyer
loans approved declined by -6.2% over this timeframe, to only 5,879 loans. This
is surprisingly large considering home affordability only declined by -0.3%. In
saying this, other deterrents such as tighter lending criteria by banks may
have further played a role.

Weekly family median income in QLD was $1,711 in the
September quarter of 2018, representative of a 2.6% increase over the past 12
months. A 2.6% growth in weekly family median income is in line with growth in New
South Wales and the Australian average. This also brings QLD weekly family
median income to the same level as Victoria. This suggests there is strong wage
growth in QLD, which lays a strong foundation for economic growth in 2019.

The PRDnationwide Q1 2019 Key Economic Indicators provide
consumers with a quick snapshot of the current state of the market in
Australia, from an economic and property perspective. The Indicators cover both
national and state level data, comprising of: